Transport systems for sheet material comprising a conveyor belt charged with a vacuum are known form the state of the art. These transport systems are built up by a vacuum chamber and a conveyor belt moving along the vacuum chamber. The vacuum chamber is coupled to a vacuum pump which evacuates the chamber to produce a vacuum or low pressure inside the chamber. The conveyor belt covers one or more openings in the vacuum chamber which charge the belt with the vacuum. Via bores or other recesses in the belt the vacuum or low pressure inside the chamber produces suction forces which adhere the sheet material to the conveyor belt for transport.
The transport systems for sheet material comprising a conveyor belt charged with a vacuum known form the state of the art suffer form the drawback that they are complex and expensive because of the fact that vacuum pumps are used. The known transport systems are in addition inflexible with respect to allowing changes in the direction of transport or changes of the orientation of the sheet material being transported.